Face, subst. 1) the visage: Ven. 157. Sonn. 17, 8. Tp. II, 1, 206. III, 1, 49. IV, 173. Gentl. II, 1, 142. III, 1, 103. IV, 4, 72. IV, 4, 72 IV, 4, 72 V, 2, 8. V, 4, 114 etc. etc. to make --s == to distort one's f.: LLL V, 2, 649. Cor. II, 1, 83. Mcb. III, 4, 67. “leave thy damnable --s,” Hml. III, 2, 263. “can any f. of brass hold longer out?” LLL V, 2, 395. “I have not the f. to say . . .,” Cor. IV, 6, 116. “to put a strange f. on his own perfection,” Ado II, 3, 49. “if he break, thou mayst with better f. exact the penalty,” Merch. I, 3, 137. “turn thy f. in peace,” John V, 2, 159 (== depart). “so buxom, blithe, and full of f.” John V, 2, 159 (== beautiful? or of a full face, of a florid appearance?). “hadst thou Narcissus in thy f.” Ant. II, 5, 96. “I'll tell thee wonders. With that f.?” LLL I, 2, 145 (Jaquenetta's reply, evidently implying doubt). “from f. to foot,” Cor. II, 2, 112. “f. to f.:” Ado V, 1, 307. John II, 390. R2 I, 1, 15. H5 V, 2, 30. H8 V, 3, 47. “breatheth in her f.” Ven. 62; cf. Err. II, 2, 137. H4A II, 4, 214 etc. “break it in your f.” Err. III, 1, 76 (== before your eyes). “stand in his f. to contradict his claim,” John II, 280. “slept in his f.” H4A III, 2, 82. “laughed in his f.” H6C II, 1, 60. “look in this gentleman's f.” Meas. II, 1, 154. John II, 495 etc. “look me in the f.” Mids. III, 2, 424. H6A I, 1, 140. Ant. III, 3, 12 etc. “he smiled me in the f.” H5 IV, 6, 21. “pale destruction meets thee in the f.” H6A IV, 2, 27. “ravish your daughters before your --s,” H6B IV, 8, 32. H6C II, 2, 14. II, 6, 39. Caes. V, 3, 35 etc. “the prayers of holy saints and wronged souls, like high-reared bulwarks, stand before our --s,” R3 V, 3, 242. “wilt thou flout me thus unto my f.?” Err. I, 2, 91. “it shall be read to his f.” All's IV, 3, 131. “speak treason to thy f.” R2 V, 3, 44. H6A I, 3, 44. H6A I, 3, 44 H6B IV, 7, 42. V, 1, 86. H8 II, 1, 18. Rom. IV, 1, 28. Oth. V, 2, 77. to show one's f. == to have the courage to appear: Wiv. II, 3, 33. LLL V, 2, 271. Troil. V, 5, 45. Mcb. V, 7, 14. -- The controverted passage in Caes. II, 1, 114: if not the f. of men etc. may be understood literally: having manly faces, looking like men, you ought to act like men.
Figurative use: to ride with ugly rack on his (heaven's) “celestial f.” Sonn. 33, 6. “spits in the f. of heaven,” Merch. II, 7, 45. R3 IV, 4, 239. Mcb. IV, 3, 6. “to see this morning's f.” Rom. IV, 5, 41. “to the f. of peril myself I'll dedicate,” Cymb. V, 1, 28 (i. e. to look peril in the face. cf. “stays but to behold the f. of that occasion,” H4A I, 3, 275. “against the f. of death I sought the purchase,” Per. I, 2, 71. “fled from that great f. of war,” Ant. III, 13, 5.
2) look, appearance, form: “so love's f. may still seem love to me,” Sonn. 93, 2. “executing the outward f. of royalty,” Tp. I, 2, 104. “I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief, that the first f. of neither, on the start, can woman me to it,” All's III, 2, 52. in this “the antique and well noted f. of plain old form is much disfigured,” John IV, 2, 21. “you taught me how to know the f. of right,” V, 2, 88. “thinking by this f. to fasten in our thoughts that they have courage,” Caes. V, 1, 10. “there is division, although as yet the f. of it be covered,” Lr. III, 1, 20.
3) surface: “about the mourning and congealed f. of that black blood a watery rigol goes,” Lucr. 1744. “the f. to sweeten of the whole dungy earth,” Wint. II, 1, 156. “shall ill become the flower of England's f.” R2 III, 3, 97. “the earth's cold f.” H6C II, 3, 35. R3 V, 3, 266. Tim. IV, 3, 190. Mcb. II, 4, 9. cf. LLL IV, 2, 7.